Inside PR 481: Really, we’re not making this stuff up.

July 17, 2017 • thornley • Inside PR, Show Notes

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Dean Baquet inadvertently makes the case for a Public Editor at the New York Times. Google supports innovation in online news, but diverts attention from the real issue. The News Media Alliance calls for an antitrust exemption. Yep, that’s right. Solve the problem of market dominance by compounding the problem. Really, we’re not making this stuff up.

Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley tackle these issues in this episode of the Inside PR podcast. Gini Dietrich is traveling this week, but she’ll rejoin us next week.

Dean Baquet answers reader questions – and inadvertently makes the case for a Public Editor

Last month, the New York Times eliminated its public editor position. And we thought this was a bad move.

Last week, Dean Baquet published a column answering readers’ questions about the cuts to editorial staff and, in doing so, he inadvertently made the case for a Public Editor at the New York Times. The fact that Baquet had an answer for every question, and that these answers showed no self doubt or reconsideration of positions, illustrated that simply receiving and answering questions does not replace the Public Editor function. The Public Editor was a position inside the NY Times, with the perspective on what happened as the sausages were made, and the ability to comment freely from an independent perspective. That now is lost. And just like a government without checks and balances, real accountability is imperilled.

Google supports innovation in online news; but diverts attention from real issue

Google and Facebook have recently been moving to support innovation in online news publishing. Martin points to one of the most recent efforts, a US $800,00 contribution by Google’s Digital News Initiative toward the creation of RADAR, software that will generate local news stories for the The Press Association, a U.K.-based news agency. A little support for template, predictable stories. But that’s not what we need. This type of effort to support innovation only diverts attention from the real issue. We need support for the reporters who exercise judgment about sophisticated stories.

The News Media Alliance’s solution will compound the problem

Last year, the Newspaper Association of America rebranded itself as The News Media Alliance. Does new paint lead to a smarter organization? It doesn’t seem so, based on its effort to convince Congress to give news publishers antitrust exemption to enable them to negotiate with Facebook and Google. Doesn’t this remind you of the publishers negotiating with Amazon over the right to set book prices? And who was the loser? The reading public who found those $9.99 book prices replaced by $19 book prices.

The solution to the plight of news publishers isn’t to allow them to escape antitrust so that they can negotiate as a group. Instead, the real answer to the problem lies in challenging the dominance achieved in search and social by Google and Facebook respectively and the unfettered power they are allowed to exercise. If anything, Congress should focus on reining in these two dominant platforms. Then, maybe, we’ll be able to stop the erosion of competition and enable innovation by small companies. Just as Google and Facebook once innovated.

Think twice before you upload a large PDF to your Website

We offer a reminder to anyone responsible for running a Website to think about the size of documents they expect to be downloaded by the public. This came to mind with the recent increase in the price charged by Canada’s largest ISPs to people who exceed their monthly data cap. If you publish PDFs and other documents for download that will gobble up 50MB of a visitor’s monthly data allowance, they will not thank you. In fact, if they reflect on it, they may actually think that what you are doing is costing them money. And do we like people who cost us money? So, if you are in charge of a Website, please, please, please ensure that anything you publish on your site, whether it is documents for download, images or anything else, are compressed to the smallest usable size. Your visitors will appreciate you for this.

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows. Leave a comment on the blog, send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group, We’re also on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

#IPRMustKnow

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

IPR 480: Walks like a Duck. Quacks like a Duck. Must be Facebook the news publisher.

July 11, 2017 • thornley • PR, Show Notes

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When is a yellow rubber duck worth a thousand words? Facebook walks like a news publisher and quacks like a news publisher; must be a news publisher. No surprise here: Venture capitalist research features their portfolio companies. But what of disclosure? Marketing with social bookmarking. Social media innovation is alive and well. And IPR is on iHeartRadio. Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley tackles these issues in this episode of the Inside PR podcast.

Yellow Rubber Duckie?

The giant yellow duck that visited the Toronto Waterfront on Canada Day underlined that, even in this digital world, old-fashioned, real life stunts still pay off.

Inside PR is on iHeartRadio

This may be self-serving, but we want to tell you that Inside PR is available on iHeartRadio. We know that one of you found us – because in the three episodes since we arrived on iHeartRadio, we have had exactly ONE download of each episode of iHeartRadio. We love you whoever you are. And if you are our lone iHeartRadio subscriber, let us know, because we want to give you a shoutout on the next episode.

Social media innovation is alive and well

You may think that the glory days of social media innovation ended when Facebook became dominant. However, a recent Marketing Land post reminded us that the pace of change in social media is still rapid. Change is the new normal. But so much change this year.

No surprise here. Research by venture capitalists may focus on their investment portfolio

Tom Webster of Edison Research published a critical analysis of the Mary Meeker Internet Trends report. He didn’t question her observations. But he did point out that the growth examples that she profiled tended to be Kleiner Perkins investments. There’s nothing wrong with this. But it does beg the question of adequate disclosure. As Webster says, “take the report for what it is — an extremely effective piece of content marketing, promoting the trends and interests of a company selectively invested in the space.” PR people are familiar with the FTC rules governing disclosure of sponsored posts. Would Mary Meeker’s presentation at the Code Conference have passed this test? No one is questioning Meeker’s ethics. But the fact that the highlighting of Kleiner Perkins investments was not explicitly spelled out for the average observer does provide a cautionary example.

Marketing with Social Bookmarking

Gini and Joe have been longtime advocates of social bookmarking as a tool, as a means of contributing to the community, and as a way to make transparent our interests and our research. So, we were happily surprised to see the name of Martin’s latest Lynda.com course – Marketing with Social Bookmarking. Martin talks with us about the course and we exchange tips about how we get the most out of social bookmarking. Yes, this is a shameless plug for our co-host, Martin Waxman.

Facebook adjust its news feed algorithm, reinforcing its role as a news publisher

Facebook’s recent adjustment to its news feed algorithm underlines again that Facebook is a news publisher, not just a neutral conduit, and they have an obligation to serve the public good. Follow us here. When you…

Boast a “news feed value” that states that “News feeds should be informative,” (All the news that’s fit to print?)
Call out “a tiny group of people … who routinely share vast amounts of public posts per day, effectively spamming people’s feeds,” (letters to the editor?)
Suggest that, “Our research shows that the links they share tend to include low quality content such as clickbait, sensationalism and misinformation.” (editorial judgment)
State baldly that, “We want to reduce the influence of these spammers,” and you adjust your news feed algorithm to suppress distribution of their posts,

…you have committed an editorial act on a par with the editor of any newspaper. You are not just a platform or a conduit, you are a news publisher with all the responsibilities to society and the obligations that status carries with it. Facebook, it’s time to step up, admit that you are a news publisher and accept all of the responsibilities that come with that status.

It’s your turn.

#IPRMustKnow

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 478: Data Science for Public Relations

June 27, 2017 • thornley • Inside PR, Show Notes

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Data Science for PR

This week, Martin Waxman, Gini Dietrich, and Joseph Thornley talk with Alex Sevigny, the Executive Director of the McMaster-Syracuse Master of Communications Management Program, about the importance of data science to the skillset of the well-rounded PR professional.

#IPRMustKnow

We also talk about upcoming updates to the Apple Podcasts app, which will support podcast series and give podcasters analytics so that they can learn more about how people are consuming their content.

And before we leave, we talk about the comfort to be received from Binky. It started as a joke, and then it took over the world. 🙂

It’s your turn.

#IPRMustKnow

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Subscribe on the podcast app of your choice

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 477: Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends

June 7, 2017 • thornley • Inside PR, Show Notes

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Pinterest acquires Delicious and will preserve it as an archive. Martin Waxman provides a primer on social listening for business. And Mary Meeker tells us about the Internet Trends that are shaping our world.

Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley are together for another episode of the Inside PR podcast.

Farewell Delicious

Delicious was one of the first social apps that Gini, Martin and Joe used. A place to bookmark content and share it with our communities. An early pioneer, Delicious sold to Yahoo … and the end began. Yahoo didn’t know what to do with Delicious. The app stagnated and was overtaken by newer competitors like Diigo. And now one of those rivals, Pinboard, has purchased Delicious. Pinterest’s 1 billion entries will be preserved as an archive of the early social web. Thank you Pinboard for preserving the archives.

Martin Waxman is a celebrity

Yes, Martin is a celebrity, a Lynda.com, LinkedIn Training celebrity. In 2016, he produced his first course for Lynda.com, Social Media Marketing for Small Business. Now, his second online course for Lynda/LinkedIn – Social Listening for Marketers – has been published. It takes a 50,000 foot look at the importance of social listening, how it has transformed research, how it has enabled us to understand and connect with customers. Martin loves the Lynda.com team. And he has enjoyed developing these courses. So, check out his newest and expect more in the future.

The State of the Internet

Social media geeks wait all year long for Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends report. And this year, Meeker again unveiled the report at a presentation at the Code Conference. This year’s presentation weighed in at 355 slides – yes, that is not a typo. 355 slides. That’s a lot of data and insight. We discuss some of the things that we found most interesting.

It’s your turn.

#IPRMustKnow

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Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 476: Don’t delete the Public Editor!

June 6, 2017 • thornley • Inside PR, Show Notes

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In this week’s Inside PR podcast episode: The NY Times deletes its public editor. Facebook makes a concession to publishers. AVEs be gone. The GIF turns 30. Walt Mossberg retires. Terry Fallis rides again. And USC Annenberg Survey gets too personal.

Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley are together for another episode of the Inside PR podcast.

Terry Fallis’ sixth novel hits the bookstands

Terry Fallis is a PR-renaissance man. He co-founded his own PR firm, Thornley Fallis and when social media came along, he was one of the first PR podcasters, launching the Inside PR podcast with David Jones in 2006. But over the years, he has become celebrated as an award winning, best selling author of humorous fiction. His sixth novel, One Brother Shy, launched last week. And this week, we should see it at the top of the Canadian best seller lists. I’ve read every one of Terry’s novels. Every one brings a smile to my face. And his current novel, One Brother Shy, turns on Terry’s experience in marketing. So, it will be especially resonant for anyone in the marketing and communications industries. So, if you haven’t read one of Terry’s novels, this is the time to try your first, One Brother Shy.

Happy thirtieth birthday to the GIF

It was thirty years ago today…. Or something like that. The GiF is thirty years old. That’s thirty years of arguing over a soft “G” vs. a hard “G.” The GIF. The JPG. The MP3. Good things come with three letter extensions.

Walt Mossberg retires

An era in tech journalism has come to a close with the retirement of Walt Mossberg. Mossberg invented a new approach to technology reviews, putting the perspective of the user at the forefront. In doing so, he covered the revolution in personal computers, the arrival of the world wide web, the unveiling of the iPhone and everything of note in technology over a quarter century. Walt’s last column looks ahead to where things will go from here as we enter the era of ambient computing (nice term Walt!). It, like everything else Mossberg wrote, is definitely worth a read.

New York Times deletes its Public Editor function

The New York Times is eliminating the position of Public Editor – and that is bad news. The Times announced the move as part of a round of layoffs, in which the Times streamlined its editorial functions, with the intent of freeing up salary to hire more front line reporters. More on the ground reporters is something to be applauded. However, the elimination of the Public Editor function is not. The Times Publisher, Arthur Sulzberger, suggested that the Public Editor is not required in an era in which the Times is constantly being scrutinized on social media. But it’s clear to us that the view from outside, regardless of how thoughtful it may be, cannot substitute for an independent critical eye from within. To maintain its preeminent position, the Times needs to excel in every way. And the critiques of Liz Spayd and her five predecessors as Public Editors have told truth to power, helping the Times to identify where it has fallen short and how it could improve. Cutting the Public Editor is one cut that is truly misguided and we hope that the Times will reverse the cut and restore the position of Public Editor posthaste.

Correction: Oops. In the podcast, I said that I shell out $1,000 per year for a New York Times subscription. I am a subscriber. My by online-only subscription costs me only about $250 per year. Pardon the error.

Another Correction : Oops. Oops. Did I really refer to NY Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet as “David” Baquet? Yes, I did. Ungh. His name is Dean. He knows it is Dean. I know it is Dean. Pardon another error.

Did Facebook just blink?

Facebook introduced Facebook Instant Articles with a carrot and a stick. The carrot: delivering a larger audience and more revenue to publishers. The stick: Content published on a publisher’s own platform would rank lower in the Facebook algorithm than Facebook Instant Articles. We’ve talked previously about how some publishers, including the Guardian and the New York Times, had reported their disappointment at the results they were achieving from Facebook Instant Articles and their pullback form the platform. Well, Facebook has made a concession to publishers. It has announced that publishers creating content using its proprietary software developers kit (SDK) will now be able to also produce that content for use in Google Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) and Apple News. This sweetens the deal offered to publishers who want to distribute everywhere by streamlining their content production workflow. And Facebook clearly hopes that what’s good for publishers will be good for Facebook, especially if publishers standardize on the Facebook SDK to produce their multiplatform content. A concession by Facebook that advances publisher lock-in? Hmmm.

CIPR, AMEC and Advertising Value Equivalencies (AVEs)

Gini brings us the “good news” that the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) has thrown its support behind the Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communications (AMEC) commitment to eradicate the use of Advertising Value Equivalencies (AVEs) in measuring communications programs.

Just how many times will we have to declare the AVE dead before it stops rearing its ugly head in corporate measurement programs? AVEs are meaningless people! You can’t equate paid with earned media. You cannot assign a value to earned media that any group of intelligent people will agree on. AVEs are fiction, pure and simple. Requiesce in pace.

USC Annenberg survey is just too personal

Did you spot this article on The Holmes Report? Did you complete the survey it pointed to? How do you feel about a questionnaire that asks questions about individual people, including whether you would hire them? What public interest is served by this? I think this survey is a misfire and totally inappropriate. Is this how fake news is manufactured?

It’s your turn.

#IPRMustKnow

Our hashtag is #IPRMustKnow. If you are tweeting or posting about the podcast, please include our hashtag so that we can find your post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on the podcast app of your choice

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

******************************************************************

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 475: Car crashes all the time?

May 25, 2017 • thornley • Inside PR, Show Notes

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Ev Williams reminds us about what the Internet can and should be. Worth considering. Society & Data issues a report on Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online. Worth Reading. Is Pinterest Shazam for Food? Worth sampling. Facebook struggles with community standard and keeps marching forward in video. Worth a time out? And MP3 is dead. Worth debunking.

Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley are together for another episode of the Inside PR podcast.

Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online

Data & Society, the New York-based research institute has published a new study, Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online, which every person interested in today’s media environment should read. Media manipulation techniques are being used by a wide swathe of groups, such as the alt-right, Men’s Rights Activists, gamergaters and trolls. They observe one another, adopt techniques and adapt them to achieve their objectives. The report is well-researched and cites several recent case studies, including Hillary’s Health and Pizzagate. Well worth a couple hours of your time to read.

Pinterest: Shazam for Food?

Do you use Pinterest to share food, recipes and dining experiences? A huge number of people do, including Gini Dietrich. In fact, Pinterest reports over 5 billion food-related saves and searches by US-based users in the past year. And now Pinterest has introduced new tools, including visual Lens discovery, Recipe Pins and search filters to make it easier for users to post, promote and find food and related recipes.

Facebook keeps the focus on video

Three additional Facebook innovations in video are worth noting this week:

Facebook’s watch and scroll feature, which lets users view videos side by side with their news feed is now available to desktop users.
Live Chat with Friends during Facebook Live Videos gives users the ability to move in and out of private and public chats while watching a Facebook Live Video.
Facebook Live With now enables people to share a Live Video with a guest.

Facebook’s community standards guidelines

If every there were doubt that Facebook is operating as a publisher, it was put to rest once and for all by the publication by the Guardian of leaked community standards guidance documents used by Facebook content moderators. As we have argued repeatedly, Facebook is not just a carrier, a dumb pipeline. It is a publisher. And that starts with its algorithms that incorporate the judgments of their creators and it now extends to the increasingly high profile work of their content moderators.

MP3 is dead. Long live MP3

Yep, many tech media outlets were suckered by a self serving corporate position. Yes, the patent on MP3s has expired. Yes, the company that owned the patents no longer will profit from the patent. But that doesn’t mean that MP3 is dead as a standard anymore than JPG is dead as a standard. The patent may have expired on both formats, but they will live on. Why? Because they do the job they are intended to do – and that’s good enough. Sometimes, “good enough” technology is all we need, and its simplicity and widespread adoption will keep it alive indefinitely. So, ignore the stories about the death of MP3. You don’t need a replacement. It’s not going anywhere. And for an intelligent explanation of this, take a look at Marco Arment’s post.

Car crashes all the time

Ignore the clickbait headline in the New York Times. Read the article. Respect for Ev Williams, who embodies the idealism that the Web is built on. We can do better than the ad-driven, clickbaity environment we find ourselves in. Let’s join Ev in not be satisfied until the Web is again a place to create amazing content and to be able to share ideas.

It’s your turn.

Our hashtag is #IPRMustKnow.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on the podcast app of your choice

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

******************************************************************

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 474: No-slide presentations. Step forward and be seen.

May 22, 2017 • thornley • Inside PR, Show Notes

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Good times for PR at PRSA Counselors Academy. No-slide presentations! Better tools for Facebook Groups. WordPress joins Hacker One and offers a bounty on bugs. Quartz has an Obsession with propaganda.

Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley are together for another episode of the Inside PR podcast.

Good times for PR at Counselors Academy

Martin returned this week from Counselors Academy and he reports that attendance was up substantially. Martin estimated that about one third of the attendees being first timers. We talk about the conference and the subject matter that stood out for Martin. And among the best news for Gini and Joe: Next year’s Counselors Academy will be held in Toronto.

Better Tools for Facebook Group Administrators

Facebook has provided group administrators with the ability to set up a brief questionnaire that prospective new members must answer when requesting membership in the group. It’s not a big thing. But it will help administrators to understand who is joining the group and what has drawn them to it. Thank you Facebook.

WordPress steps up its efforts to keep our Websites secure

Over 28% of the top Websites are powered by WordPress. So, it’s great to see that WordPress continues to take security seriously. So props to WordPress for joining HackerOne and for introducing a bug bounty program.

Quartz Obsesses on PRopaganda

Quartz has started a new collection of articles on a topic that should be of interest to PR practitioners: Propaganda. No, we’re not suggesting that we see ourselves as propagandists. But it would be naïve to suggest that the birth of the PR industry and propaganda weren’t closely intertwined. And in these times, its ever more important for us to pay attention to the ethics of communications. And when you’ve bookmarked the Quartz obsession, you may want to check out Tim Wu’s treatment of Ed Bernays and the birth of PR in The Attention Merchants. And for a lean-back experience that should spark further thought, find and watch The Century of the Self, a four part documentary first shown on BBC in 2002.

It’s your turn.

Our hashtag is #IPRMustKnow.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 473: Feedly Features Filters (repeat quickly three times)

May 16, 2017 • thornley • Inside PR, Show Notes

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Twitter hooks up with Bloomberg. Feedly features mute filters. Sysomos integrates its services as stacks in a single platform. Yik Yak throws in the towel. And PR agency heads head to Seattle for PRSA Counselors Academy.

After several weeks of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley are back in one place at the same time for another episode of the Inside PR podcast.

PRSA Counselors Academy draws PR agencies from across North America

Martin’s off to PRSA’s Counselors Academy in Seattle. And if the expected increased turnout materializes, it will put the lie to the notion that PR agencies are in trouble. On the other hand, we have a feeling that much of the industry is stuck in the traditional media relations niche. And it’s never a good to be tied to a shrinking sector.

Twitter and Bloomberg

Twitter’s partnership with Bloomberg to offer 24 hour video news is a positive move. It makes sense for our news feed to be running curated video news alongside the community-generated news. Twitter may not be the first app that Martin, Gini or Joe opens in the morning. But when news breaks, it’s the place we turn to find out the latest. So, we’re bullish on its new video initiatives.

Feedly features filters

They’re not here quite yet. But Feedly promises users that it soon will offer Mute Filters. And Feedly is going about developing them the right way. They’re surveying users about what they want and asking them to comment on a user interface. Feedly is one of the most useful tools for communications professionals . If you aren’t using it, you should be. Click over right now and create a Feedly account. (No, this is not a paid ad. We’re just big believers in the value of Feedly and want to share it with others.)

Sysomos integrates

Communications professionals have long relied on Sysomos MAP for the data used in communications audits and Sysomos Heartbeat for social media monitoring programs. But Sysomos has been acquiring other services. And now these services have been integrated into a single Sysomos Platform offering several functional stacks: search, listen, discover, publish, engage and analyse. All in one user friendly interface that anyone familiar with Tweetdeck or Hootsuite will find intuitive. It’s a whole new Sysomos. Let’s just hope that it isn’t priced out of the budget range of small and mid-size agencies. Sysomos Light?

Yik has Yakked

When were you last on Yik Yak. Our bet is not recently. And that’s what the company realized too. Users had dropped off steeply. And so Yik Yak threw in the towel. RIP Yik Yak.

It’s your turn.

Our hashtag is #IPRMustKnow.

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 472: Meet you on Mastadon?

May 14, 2017 • thornley • Inside PR, Show Notes

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The NY Times is on Snapchat Discover. You’re probably not on Mastadon. But is that really important? Consolidation on the Internet. Facebook and augmented reality. Let’s go Inside PR. It’s just Martin and Joe this week. But we cover a lot of ground.

Facebook focuses on AR

Facebook just isn’t letting up on the pressure on Snapchat. Last year, Snapchat made waves with its glasses, pointing the way to a video future. Just as it has parroted other Snapchat features (Stories anyone?), Facebook is now pointing to an AR future and committing Facebook-scale resources to it. Competition is great, as long as the giant doesn’t crush the upstart.

Distributed publishing isn’t all publishers hoped it would be

News that the Guardian has pulled out of Apple News and Facebook Instant Articles comes on the heels of earlier reports that other publishers were not seeing the financial results they hoped to achieve from adopting the distributed publishing model being touted by Facebook, Snapchat and Google. And for those of us who publish our own content, take note. Don’t shut down your owned website quite yet.

The New York Times is looking for more on Snapchat

In April, the New York Times joined Snapchat Discover.

It’s hard to see how Snapchat Discover matches the nature of the Times content. Take an early Discover article as an example. On Sunday April 23, the Times ran a major feature on Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. The version of the Times Website clocked in as just under 4,000 words. The next morning, the Times launched its Snapchat Discover channel with the Kalanick story. And what a difference! The Snapchat version contained an animated GIF and three text panels containing under 160 words. That’s right. 4,000 words on the Times site. Less than 160 on Snapchat.

Consolidation on the Internet

A recent NY Times article underlined the degree to which the previously open Internet is consolidating around a handful of platforms. Consolidation of attention makes us less free, makes us less able to serendipitously encounter different views and different experiences.

Are you on Mastadon?

Probably not. But does that matter? Do platforms need to scale to Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat levels to be of value? No, it’s not. It’s important that we support and play with new experiments like this. Whether Mastadon every grows, the very spirit that gives to its rise underlines the vitality of the Internet and Net Neutrality.

It’s your turn.

Please rate us on iTunes

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 471: Tweak Week

April 30, 2017 • thornley • Inside PR, Show Notes

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It’s social media feature tweak week. Changes to Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat underline how competitive the social media platforms are. Plus we get onside with changing norms in acceptable language. And Spin Sucks surveys PR pros.

Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley are back for another episode of the Inside PR podcast.

#IPRMustKnow

Stories Here. Stories There. Stories Everywhere … on Facebook

Facebook lets you had Stories directly from your mobile app. In a world in which more than half of Facebook usage is on mobile apps, this is the real start of the race for Facebook. If the essence of an attention getting story is a visual, then it only makes sense to let us compose stories from the device with a built-in camera.

Snapchat Keyword search

Casual users may find Snapchat much more welcoming now that Snapchat has upgraded its search to enable full key word searches.

Twitter confuses long time users

When are extra characters worth keeping around? When they are the @NAME convention in tweets that respond to other people’s tweets. Take it away and you have confusion on the part of many long time users.

Periscope live streams now appear inside Twitter Moments

Periscope is a great live streaming tool. It’s also less popular than other livestreaming services. So, anything that raises its profile is a good thing.

RIP the Egg

And we couldn’t let the passing of the Twitter egg go by without comment. Another of the quirky, idiosyncratic things that made early Twitter so distinctive is now just a memory. Say hello to generic head and shoulder outlines as the new avatar for trolls and newbies.

A small step for gender neutral language, a giant step for Mankind

Communicators must be aware of words and phrases that convey or reinforce values that are outmoded. This is a challenge in a time in which acceptable language standards are established by focused communities of interest. It’s a big challenge to stay on top of these changes in acceptable use. We struggle to keep up.

Spin Sucks surveys PR practitioners about the state of the business

Gini Dietrich’s Spin Sucks site asked readers to tell them about the PR industry they work in today. The responses came in mostly from people who work at small PR firms and independently, which itself says something about changes in the PR industry. Gini takes us through some of the insights she gained into the state of the business through this survey.

It’s your turn.

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.